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| Installation |
| I will be installing the Collpanel in my Lian-Li V1100. Installation did not start without issues. I removed a Lian-Li aluminum bay cover and tried to install the Coolpanel. After multiple attempts to get the screws in place, I began to get frustrated. At this point, I realized the Coolpanel was made entirely of plastic. The screw holes were made smaller than the provided screws and I know this is because of the plastic material. The screws were intended to bore a larger hole and keep the Coolpanel secured in place. This is a huge problem to if you move your drives and devices around in the bays like myself. Writing reviews for GruntvillE, I may add and remove bay devices numerous times a month. I do not see this plastic material holding up after a few removals. You can see below how the hole was bored out when I installed the screw part of the way. |
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| After this one bump in the road, I did not run into any more issues during installation. One main complaint I would make is that the USB cables are external. This means you HAVE to run the cables through your case and out one of the IO panels. This makes for really messy wire management. I wish Aerocool would supply internal cables that could connect to the motherboard connectors. Once powered on, you can see the green power LED, the Blue LCD screen and 2 fan speed dials that are lighted blue. Even though the Coolpanel is plastic painted silver, it still looks pretty good when compared to the other Lian-Li drive/bay covers.
I also installed the thermal probes and fan connectors. Thank goodness I am a modder and had some thermal tape lying around, otherwise I have no idea how you would attach the probes. I’m not sure what Aerocool was thinking here, not including the thermal tape is a little cheap. Its not exactly something you can pick up at Wal-mart on your way home. I also installed the fan connectors. The temps are displayed on the LCD as either Celsius or Fahrenheit, depending on your preference. The fan speed is displayed on the LCD in the far right corner. There is a little animated fan spinning for the heck of it; just adding a little interest to the plain LCD. |
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| I was excited to see how the card reader functioned since this is my main use for the Coolpanel. I transfer tons of photos and information from an SD card. It is important to see the instruction manual before inserting a card. Depending on which type of card you use, the card may be inserted into the slot upside down. Both the SD card and the Sony Memory Stick that I use need to be inserted in the bottom slot upside down. Once inserted, a red LED illuminates letting you know that the card is being read. Here you can see the red LED and my SD memory card in the bottom card reader slot. |
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| I went into My Computer and noticed a plethora of new drives! This is my third card reader and by far the easiest to install and use. If you have never used a card reader before, you need to know that the Coolpanel shows many individual drives, labeled removable drives. For my computer these drives are labeled as E, F, G, and H. |
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| It was very easy to add, remove, transfer and delete various files from the media. The transfer is quick and simple. After transferring files, you just remove the card from the Coolpanel. It is just that easy!! |
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